


It's Gonna Be Good

by supercantaloupe



Series: d20 alphabet 2021 [5]
Category: A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 05: A Crown of Candy, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon, i tagged this major character death but it's nothing that isn't in canon so, sad :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29771361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercantaloupe/pseuds/supercantaloupe
Summary: 20th Highbright, Y.o.B. 1216: Ruby and Saccharina Rocks go on a journey together.
Relationships: Jet Rocks & Ruby Rocks, Saccharina Frostwhip & Jet Rocks, Saccharina Frostwhip & Ruby Rocks
Series: d20 alphabet 2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2178252
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021





	It's Gonna Be Good

**Author's Note:**

> prompt, day #7: Grief.
> 
> set post-canon. expect a sad one today, gang

Saccharina never predicted that ruling a country would involve  _ so many meetings.  _ Really, she signed up for this gig for only a few things: to connect with a real family, to rebuild Candia’s connections to magic, and to fuck up the church. But she imagined there’d be a lot more adventure to it, traversing the lands with herself and her allies, taking down evil with Winterscoop in her hand and Cinnamon at her side.

I mean, she  _ does _ still do that stuff. Just not as often as she imagined. Honestly, she can go weeks without leaving the grounds of Castle Candy these days, and the most recent times she did were on brief jaunts to Castle Manylicks to meet with Duke Jawbreaker, or to make a public appearance in Dulcington for the new year’s festival. But it’s the middle of summer now and she hasn’t left in  _ ages, _ and being cooped up in this hot, stuffy old castle every day makes her long for the cold winds of the sugar mountains and the open milk sea. 

But no, she has meetings to attend. Saccharina realizes she’s queen, and could probably do whatever she damn well pleases if she really wanted, but so much is  _ expected _ of her now. She doesn’t want to fuck it all up again. The least she could do is have a good excuse first.

Luckily enough, an excuse presents itself soon enough. It’s the 18th of Highbright, and while the queen is reviewing records of the summer’s cotton candy harvests and collected taxes from the West Cake, a Tartguard officer announces that her advisor wishes to have an audience with her Majesty. Bored, Saccharina waves a hand to allow them in, immediately perking up when the door opens.

“Ruby!” Saccharina greets, standing from the table and grinning. 

Ruby bows, but only slightly, enough to respect her queen but not so much as to disrespect her sister. She smiles, but there’s something on her mind reflected on her face. “Hi, Saccharina.”

“Spirits, I’m glad you’re here,” Saccharina exhales, collapsing back into her chair. The scrolls and parchments on the table laid out before her shuffle in the breeze. She gestures in exasperation. “I could use a break from all this. What’s up?”

Ruby holds up a pair of scrolls and walks over. “Correspondence from Pops,” she says, setting one down on the table and rolling it over to Saccharina. “He says hi. Doing well in Comida.”

Saccharina chuckles and opens the scroll, briefly skimming it. “Does he have any idea what he’s doing?”

“None at all. At least he has Mum with him.”

“Sounds about right.” Saccharina sets the scroll down again and smiles back up to Ruby. “Something else on your mind?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Ruby confirms. She rests her fist on the table and flexes her fingers a little. Saccharina thinks she seems nervous, at least preoccupied. “I was wondering if I could get some royal permission to ditch my duties for a day.”

“Is that it?” Saccharina laughs again. Ruby frowns slightly. Saccharina leans back in her chair and gestures broadly with one arm. “Take a day off, go for it! The council can spare you for a day.” A little smile returns to Ruby’s lips, and she seems to relax a little. “What for? Planning something?”

“Just a quick trip upriver,” Ruby says. “I have someone to visit, it should only take a day.”

“Sounds nice. Any occasion in mind, or just need to get away from the castle for a breather?”

“For our saint’s day,” Ruby explains simply. She looks pensive.

“Ah,” Saccharina says, nodding. Both girls knew that neither was remotely Bulbian anymore, yet Saccharina understood that old traditions tend to linger. And she wouldn’t blame anyone for such an excuse to have a single day of levity. “Y’know, I like the  _ concept  _ of saints’ days, but I feel like it doesn’t  _ really _ apply anymore, y’know?” Saccharina muses aloud. 

“Maybe you can call them something else,” Ruby suggests.

“Yeah,” Saccharina agrees, tapping her lips with a finger in thought. “Like... _ birth-day. _ I feel like that’s more neutral and descriptive anyway, what do you think?” Ruby shrugs a little in response, but she’s not frowning anymore. “Anyway. What I wouldn’t give to get out of this castle for a day too,” Saccharina continues. She raises an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose you’d mind having company?”

Ruby considers this. “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to tag along,” she says.

Saccharina smiles brightly. “Like a little family bonding trip,” she muses, then stands. “What day did you wanna head out? I’ll let Theo and Gooey know we’ll be going, and organize a party--”

“I’d rather we go alone,” Ruby interrupts, frowning again. Her fingers tense around her scroll. “Theo and Liam can come I suppose, if they want, but I’d rather it just be us if that’s alright.”

“Oh,” Saccharina stops and looks at her. “Yeah, that’s fine. No problem. When do you wanna go?”

“The 20th. At dawn.”

“Sounds like a plan, I’ll be ready.”

Two days later, the sisters head out. They pack lightly, only their weapons and the plainclothes on their back. (It was only a day trip, and nobody expected anything to go wrong, but neither sister liked to be caught unprepared.) They ride on dragonback in the early morning light; initially, Ruby thinks Cinnamon is far too conspicuous, but Saccharina convinces her that traveling early in the morning and late at night will reduce the chances of anyone seeing them, and that it doesn’t really matter anyway, because if anyone decides to give them shit for any reason they’ll have two sorcerers and a motherfucking dragon to deal with. And by flight, it’s a very short trip, only an hour or two upriver. The weather today is clear and sunny and warm, a perfect Highbright day, it’s gonna be good, they’ll see.

Saccharina guides Cinnamon while Ruby guides Saccharina. Other than the occasional direction, however, Ruby is very quiet. Saccharina’s traveled with her sister before, even after the crusade blew over and Castle Candy was successfully taken back. They’ve gone on a few trips together -- into Dulcington, into Ceresia and Vegetania and the Dairy Islands, to Comida to visit the Concordant Emperor and pay their respects/say hi to Pops. And true, they’ve never travelled just the two of them alone before, but regardless, Ruby strikes Saccharina this morning as... _ off _ . Quiet. They can usually make some conversation on the journey together, but Ruby says nothing, except to occasionally answer navigational questions. Saccharina tries a couple of times to prompt a conversation but gets nowhere, and eventually elects to ride in silence until Ruby points down at a hill on the ground and says, “There, that’s it.” 

Saccharina nods and guides Cinnamon down to a landing beside the Cola River, rushing gently and churning up thick heads of foam where the soda flows over hidden chocolate rocks below. Saccharina pauses to look around as Ruby begins to climb the hill once they’ve dismounted the dragon. Ruby hadn’t told Saccharina where they were going specifically, and Saccharina hadn’t thought to care until now; she was just grateful for the fresh air and change of scenery. But whatever Saccharina had expected, it wasn’t quite...this. This was the middle of nowhere. 

She crests the hill after Ruby to get a better look around. There are farmers’ fields stretching out for a while, with trellises set in neat rows for the jellybean vines to grow along. The grass on the hill is pink and soft and long, swaying in the cool morning breeze. It’s a quaint and pretty, if utterly unremarkable sight to behold. Saccharina turns and opens her mouth to say something to Ruby. She doesn’t get that far, though, as she notices her sister standing atop the hill, under the shade of a stately tree. The wind rustles its purple-and-blue leaves. Ruby is silent and stares down at the base of its trunk.

When Saccharina had first met the Rocks family, some part of her knew, logically, that there was an absence among their number. Some part of her knew intrinsically that there should have been someone else. And Saccharina has known, for nearly a year of working and fighting and growing alongside Ruby, that there should be another Rocks sister. It doesn’t really sink in until now, though, not until she quietly moves to stand beside Ruby and sees the unmarked stone set at the base of the tree.

“Oh,” she says. It’s all she can say.

Ruby takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She nods.

“Hey, Jet,” Ruby says finally, after a long silence. She sits down in the grass, cross-legged, casual. Saccharina stays standing, and gives her a respectful distance. “Happy saints’ day,” Ruby continues, smiling a little and looking down at her lap. She fidgets with a scroll in her lap. “Got a letter from Mum and Pops the other day,” she relays, looking back at the stone and the tree stump. “They’re doing really well in Comida. Well, Pops doesn’t have a  _ clue _ what he’s doing…” She laughs a little. Saccharina watches the morning sunlight catch and glint in the tears on her cheek. “Did you ever find out he’s Emperor now? Like, officially. I don’t think we got to tell you yet…”

As Ruby continues to explain the past few months to her sister, Saccharina watches, and thinks. She knows that Jet is gone. Jet is gone, for real. The Bulb cares for no one. The Hungry One cares for no one. The Sugarplum Fairy is dead and gone. Jet is gone, and Lazuli is gone, and Lapin is gone, and they are all gone. Wherever gone is, it is not here anymore. And moreover, Saccharina knows that  _ Ruby _ knows this. Ruby knows that the Sugarplum Fairy is gone. Ruby knows that Lapin is gone. Ruby knows that Citrina and Sapphria and Rococoa and Lazuli are gone, and Ruby knows that Jet is gone. And Saccharina knows that Ruby knows that she is talking to thin air. 

Saccharina begins to realize that none of that matters, not a single fucking word of it. 

“...and hey, you never had to be queen anyway,” Ruby continues, laughing again. “Things really did work out in the end.” Ruby bites her lip, lets that hang in the air. Syrup tears water the grass over Jet’s grave. 

After a very long moment, Saccharina puts her hand on Ruby’s shoulder and squeezes it. Her skin is soft, and cold, but in a not-unkind way. Ruby swallows the lump in her throat and sniffs, looking up at her half-sister’s face. She hiccups and smiles a little again, looking back to the stone. “Right, Jet, there’s someone you should meet.’’ Ruby looks back up at Saccharina and she can’t sort through everything she sees in those misty eyes.

Saccharina takes a deep breath and sinks down to sit cross-legged beside Ruby. “Hey, Jet,” she begins, speaking to the stone. She’s not sure what to say, or how to say it. Ruby takes her hand. Saccharina clears her throat and tries again. “I’ve, uh, heard a lot about you. Mostly good things, don’t worry…” She hears Ruby chuckle slightly at her side, and feels like she’s doing something right. “Bet you, uh, bet you didn’t know you had an older sis, right? I, uh…” 

She sighs. This is hard. She never expected it to be easy. She didn’t know  _ what _ she expected, honestly, but it wasn’t this. What the fuck is she supposed to say? Sorry I took your throne, even though it was meant for me and you didn’t want it anyway? Sorry I always wanted a sister and then took yours? Sorry you died before I ever got to find out if you’d love me or despise me? “...I really wish I could’ve met you...before,” Saccharina finally says. 

She looks away, swallows the lump in her throat, stands, turns away. This is hard. She’s lost plenty of people before. Too many. It feels morbid to concede that this should be easier, she should be more used to this, but for whatever reason, she isn’t. She’s talking to thin air, to the absent ghost of a girl she never knew. Maybe this time is different, or maybe she’s out of practice, or whatever fucking else it could be, but it’s not easy, it’s not good, it’s hard, it’s unbelievably hard, it’s--

Saccharina feels Ruby grab her hand again and give it a squeeze. She looks back and finds her sister standing again, looking up at her face. Wordlessly, she brings Saccharina into a tight hug, and buries her face in Saccharina’s cloak. 

“I think she would have liked you,” Ruby says, muffled, but clear enough. 

Saccharina bows her head and holds her tight. “I hope so.”

**Author's Note:**

> rebloggable [here,](https://supercantaloupe.tumblr.com/post/644422658973368320/dimension20alphabet-prompt-fill-7-grief-title) prompt list [here.](https://dimension20alphabet.tumblr.com/post/643573819181776896/prompt-masterlist)
> 
> title is a reference to Next to Normal (again). it's _MY_ favorite musical and _I_ get to choose the thematic song lyric to use as a fic title
> 
> also these prompt fills were supposed to be short and every time i write a new one they keep getting longer. what's up with that
> 
> thank you for reading! <3


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